


Gone

by The_Great_Uniter



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Multi, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-10 23:52:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3307856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Great_Uniter/pseuds/The_Great_Uniter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Beifong family has suffered another tragic loss. Wei can't seem to function without his brother so he leaves Zaofu in search of himself and in search for answers regarding his brothers death. What he finds will open up something not even the Avatars of the past could have for seen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is my first serious fanfic, and I am really happy with it. I'd really like it if you guys left any serious comments and criticism at the bottom, but the fact that you are here reading is enough to make me happy. Please let me know what you guys think, if you can, and I can't wait to start reading some of the stuff you guys have out there. (Also, I am a little bad at proofreading so if you see any grammar errors or something like that PLEASE let me know!) Thank you so much.

_“Nothing in Life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” - Chinese Proverb_

 

“Mom, Dad, I want you to know that I love you both, but I can't stay here anymore.” I looked down at my full plate of food. I couldn’t bare to stomach another bight.

Huan jumped up from the table shouting “So you’re just gonna leave too then! This family is falling apart, and no seems to give a damn. First Opal goes to live with the air nomads, BJ is a war criminal, and Wing--

“SHUT UP,” screamed Wei getting to his feet with frightening speed. “You don’t have a right to speak his name. Where were you when we we’re fighting the remnants of Kuvira’s army? Did you ever lift a finger to help protect anyone in this family? I don’t fucking think so. Don’t ever speak to me about Wing, ever until you know him like do.”

We stared at each other. I could feel the animosity between them, and he was ready to pounce at any moment. Huan just stood there breathing heavily, fists clenched looking down. It wasn’t until Mom put down her chopsticks and got up that we respectfully sat back down.

“Listen, I know were all handling this in different ways, but its going to be okay. We can make it through this together. No matter how far from home, any of my children are, I know there heart will always be with mine.” She walked over  to me, her hands trembling slightly. She kneeled down until they were at eye level. The eye contact made me little worrisome, so I slouched a little in his chair and into myself. “Wei, if you want to leave, no one is stopping you, in fact, I will help you. You have my blessing. Take your plate and go eat in the garden, I’ll meet you there. In a little while.”

I did as she asked. I walked down the corridor my plate in one hand, and my other hand trailing on the thick steel walls of our palace. I hated being, here. Every time I turn a corner, and see my reflection shining back at me I want to rip the wall from its place. I know that I can’t bear a life without

Wing, at least not here. I got to the garden, and sat under one of Huan’s sculptures and tried to eat a little bit of the boiled moon peaches, but they still made me feel sick.

“Where are you going to go?” I jumped at the sound of Dads voice, but was soothed to see him without mom. I knew that deep down inside she was hurt that another one of her kids would be leaving from under her, especially now.

“I don’t know. I think, north. Visit Republic city, and then maybe visit the Northern Water Tribe--” I stammered between my words, until Dad sat down next to me.

“Why?”

“I-- Maybe I can see-- There--

“Son, tell me the truth. I don’t need bending to know that you're hiding something from me.”

“I can stand to be here anymore. Everything reminds me of Wing and its just --.”

“So you’re running away?”

“Yes-- No! No, I am not running --

“Then what is it?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” I shouted, slamming my fist down. I felt the metal beneath me almost dent, but I kept my bending in check. I am not a child. “I-- I am sorry.”

“It’s okay, Wei. I was pushing you that way for a reason. I know you don’t know what happening and this is a very hard time for all of us right now. We all have different ways of dealing with this loss. I also support your decision to leave, but not for the same reasoning. You have lived all your life here, with people you love. Multiple of them were taken away from you, and I understand why that makes you angry, but you must learn to live with it.” He turned his head up to the stars now, and seemed to be talking more to them instead of me at this point. “Now that a big part of your life has been taken away from you, you are probably hurt, scared and confused, and all that is okay. What you need now, is go out and discover who you are. You need to find Wei. It’s what Wing would have wanted. ”

We sat there for a while in silence. I leaned my head into his shoulder and started crying, sobbing really. I was doing a good job of holding back the waterworks, but I couldn’t bear it anymore. After I was done, I hugged him, then stood up. I extended my own hand to help him get up as well.

“So, where should I go?” I asked my voice croaked from all the crying.

“Go not where your mind wanders, but where your heart soars.” Something about that sentence made me feel a little better. Mom came out from the back of the house and crossed into the courtyard looking for us. When she found us she strided over, a tired but warm look on her face.

“There are my boys.” she smiled. “Did you two have a talk?”

“Yeah,” I whispered looking down. “Dad and I decided where I am gonna’ go.”

“And where is that?”

“The desert.”

“Bataar, is this true?” she asked a little shocked. He said nothing, but nodded. “Well, I approve. When will you be a leaving us?” Her voice quivered ever so lightly.

“I’ll take the first train tomorrow morning. I think it’s best to start a journey abruptly, or you might never get started.”

“Those are wise words, son. Su, don’t you agree?” Dad asked grabbing hold of Moms hand.

“Yes, he takes after his father I suppose. Let’s get back inside, and get you ready.”

“Wait, is Huan still mad at me?” I asked looking at a tall sculpture behind us. It was twisted from the bottom and got straighter as it got to the top.

“Of course not. Your brother is having just as hard a time as you are. I think he will be leaving shortly too.”

“Alright.”

“Let’s go. It’s time we rest.”

We walked back to the house, where Huan and I apologized to each other before bed. He was really sorry about everything, and just didn’t want to lose another brother. It’s funny how people expect everyone else to be healthy, when were hurt in the same way. I walked into my-- our -- room and turned on the light. I looked at the empty bed across from me. The sheets were still messed up from the last time he laid there. There was a photograph of us smiling together in Republic City, after clearing away rubble from the aftermath of Kuvira’s colossus. I slid it out of its frame stuck it my pocket.

I left that night, but I decided I needed to give them at least some form of goodbye. I grabbed a piece of paper from my desk and scribbled down a note. I took the lotus flower floating in its pot, and draped it over his pillow, along with the note. I took the picture out of my pocket and laid it behind the note. The moon shown perfectly through window so the bed was illuminated enough for Mom and Dad to see. I whispered the note I wrote out loud to myself, needing to hear the words for myself.

_ “Gone, but not alone. My heart lives on in you. The ground walked by one, shall always be graced by two. Farewell.” _


	2. 2

There was a great deal of commotion going on the platform as I boarded a train south for a small village called Ruan Bian that bordered the edge of the Si Wong desert. People of all different likes, but mostly ordinary Zaofu citizens were on the train that night. They bustled about with a strange detachment yet attentiveness to their surroundings that made me wonder what they were, and were not aware of. I got to the teller at the window and took out my soft felt purse. I had enough money for about three months of easy living until I would have to find work after my purchase of the train ticket.

The grinding metal halt of the train seemed to act like a dinner bell drawing in all the people mingling on the platform to the edge where they bumped and shoved each other to try and get a good seat. I decided to wait near the back of the crowd.

Once the train doors opened the crowd rushed forward into the locomotive filling up seats all up and down the aisles. I walked in, grabbed a silver rung from the ceiling and stood in the center with the other unlucky few. The train started moving promptly and I began to prepare myself for the three hour trip to Ruan Bian.

I felt as though I might have looked intimidating to these people on the train. My hair was disheveled, and I was the tallest and most in shape out everyone on the train. No doubt they knew I was a military man, and the smart ones knew that I was of a higher class. I didn’t want to draw attention though, so after I gained my bearings I tried to make myself seem small and unassuming. I don’t know if it worked.

I started to take in the faces of the people around me, creating little backgrounds for each of them. There was a Fire Nation man sitting down just to the left of me who kept scribbling in a pad, and then erasing, and scribbling again. He was very, very skinny. I assumed a non bender painter looking for inspiration in the fragmented and recovering Earth Kingdom. Right in front of me was a Water Tribe man, but north or south I couldn’t tell. He didn’t really do much except sigh every couple of minutes and shuffle on his feet. His clothing looked a little expensive so I know he wasn’t your average folk on the train; I labeled him a businessman. The next person, or people I should say, that caught my attention was a family clearly form Zaofu. The mother and father sat on my right, while the kids ran up and down the aisles weaving through the sea of passengers like a game. The parents looked tired and weary, but also very excited. I  judged they were traveling upon hearing important news that sought their immediate attention like the birth of a relatives child. The most interesting person however, was a lone woman, standing directly behind me. She had a small child maybe, six or seven years of age who, oddly, didn’t make a sound. They also breathed silently and without any indication in their bodies that they were breathing which struck me as strange. They were dressed in a poorer villagers type clothing and likely rode in from Ba Sing Se, on there way to a realtives house.

Now, believe it or not, there is a reason I paid this much attention to the details around me on this train. Being militarily trained under Mom I was taught numerous different styles of fighting, interrogation, tactics, strategies, survival skills, etc. The survival skills are what started to kick in. I noticed four people behind me a man who was turned to look out of the windows to left the train. All that was visible were the same boring mountains Zaofu was centered on so I know he was interested in the landscape. He wasn’t a traveler because he was in typical Zaofu garb. Then I noticed that every minute or so he would shift uncomfortably, and catch a glance up at the woman and child directly behind me. Immediately after that, he would stare at me and move from the bottom of my figure to the top. He was sizing me up.

This gave me a little more clues to the MO’s of the woman and child behind me. Fugitives. They were running from something, or someone. I won’t lie -- when this thought crossed my mind I felt a pang of remembrance as to the reason I left Zaofu myself. This meant to things, then, of the man who kept glancing our way. He was either escorting them, or hunting them. I feared the latter because he wasn’t dressed the same as them, which means he didn’t come from the same place as them. He also, kept sizing me up, knowing that as a military man I would step and defend them without question, and he was correct.

If mother taught me anything about being an earthbender, its that our greatest strength comes from substance. We believe what we have, and use what we have. But this can also be our greatest weakness. We need to learn when to refrain from using what we have, and practice patience instead. I took a deep breath and felt the metal of a pole that laid beneath the train. I felt the bits of earth all throughout it, and focused on how I would bend it if need be. I slowed my mind, and listened only to the rustle of the man’s clothes when he moved to establish a baseline. I would know before anyone else could if he decided to make a move. Compared to what I’ve been through before, it was an easier three hours.

 

When we finally got to Ruan Bian, the desert air blew in from the east and made everything seem dryer and hotter. The sky was just beginning to show signs of a sunrise, and the only people who were up at this hours were the farmers, and the train station workers. I stepped out of the train, crossed the platform, handed my ticket to the teller, and waited on a bench near the exit. I saw the woman and her child walk briskly down to the village square, and before I saw the man I heard the now distinctive sound of his rustling tunic. He followed her path exactly and they both disappeared down a side street alley.

I got up trailing them faintly. They were both of my sight, but I knew where they were, but not what would come next. As soon as I turned the corner I was met with a whirling spiral of flame directed right at my head. I bent a wide slab of stone from the street vertical barely in time to protect myself from the fire. I shot the slab forward, but broke it into multiple smaller pieces before they got to the man. He wasn’t able to evade all of them and was struck several times in his left rib cage and leg. He tumbled to the floor, but before he could get I bent earth under him around both of his arms and his feet. He struggled a bit, then looked at me with a smile.

That’s when I felt the cold sting of a waterbenders ice penetrating my left shoulder, telling me I had vastly misjudged the situation. I turned around to see the woman, the young boy behind her clutching her leg. She was bending a fairly large sliver of water around her back connected at her hands, a technique used by the southern water tribe. She moved the water around her back from her left to right hand shooting off another shard of ice, but this time I was prepared. I bent the earth from underneath myself and sprang up on top of the string of buildings on the right side of the alley.

No faster than I got there was the woman, and shocking the child, also up on the roof with me. She now had changed her style for close quarters combat with the water she was bending completely bended around her hand focused into tentacle style. She let loose a flurry of long reaching swipes making sure to freeze the end of the of the tendrils. She was smart too, because kept going for my wounded shoulder, which made dodging her attacks that much harder.

“Listen, I mean you no harm!” I shouted ducking under a blade of water only to be hit with a spiraling wet punch to my gut. I tumbled back a few meters, falling right onto my back and shoulder. I was rewarded with no time to recover, because as soon as I opened my eyes, she was upon me. She draped the water she was bending over my body, barely missing me as I rolled away. I got to my feet, but I kept my hands in the air.

“I submit! I give up!” I screamed, feeling the searing pain in my left shoulder, as it protested this stance. She dropped the water into her long range stance again, with the water draped around her back, connected by her hands.

“Who are you!” she screamed, the child now standing a little bit farther behind her.

“My name is Wei Jing! I ex military, just a traveler visiting old friends in the village.” I wasn’t about to let her know that I was a Beifong. Surely, that would do no one any good.

“Why are you following us!? Who sent you!?” at this she sharpened the edge of the water into a fine point, directed right between my eyes. I felt an immense heat coming from the street, and I presumed that the fire bender had now finally become free.

“No one sent me. I am not following you, I just thought you were in trouble. I thought that man was after you. I am so sorry, and I do not wish to fight with either of you,” I got down on my knees and held out my hands, together palms upward. “If humbly admit defeat, and if you wish to bind my hands you--” before I could even finish my sentence I felt my hands submerged in water then freeze into a one hulking chunk of ice. Just to be sure I flexed my hands in the ice loosening it up a bit in case the woman turned out to be as cold as the ice she commanded.

She walked closer to me but the child stayed behind. Her water, still flowing behind her, sharpened again, and she pointed the tip at my neck. “Who are you visiting?”

“My friend Zhaang,” I whispered, a little nervous at the point. “Look, I deeply apologize for --

“Shut up! Kaedo, get up here.” With those words the fire bender shot up from the street and landed next to the child. He patted the child on the back, and then they hugged. Kaedo, slightly limping, walked towards me with a seething anger on his face.

“Don’t trust him!” he said, looking at me with disgust and obvious restraint.

“Kaedo he is lying, but he is no threat. He isn’t after us.”

“Anahya, we can’t be too careful. You know what we're getting into with this.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to lose our humanity in the process.” she dropped the water around and bended it into a concealed sac under her dress. I felt my knees digging into the sandy top of the building we were on, and focused on using what Aunt Lyn taught me of seismic sense -- it was my turn to ask the questions.

“Once again I apologize, humbly. I wish to make it up to you, Anahya, is it?”

“Yes.” True.

“Allow me to help you, wherever it is you are going. In my backpack there is a brown purse with gold in it. Take whatever you need. I insist. It the least I can do to help. And Kaedo is it?”

“Yes.” Lie.

“I would like to formally apologize for striking you with earth. I will happily pay you in anyway to help your recovery.”

“It’s okay, it was just a few bad bruises.” Lie.

“Thank you, Wei. I am sorry we got to a bad start. We’ve been very nervous and control is of utmost importance to us.” Anahya said. The child who had begun walking up to her now grabbed her hand. “We are especially protective of this one.” True.

“What brings you both to Ruan Bian, if you don’t mind me asking.

Kaedo, looked down at his feet then took a step forward. “Treasure. Were trying to find the library lost in the desert.” Lie. I didn’t even need seismic sense for that one. Anahya nodded in agreement.

“Let me pay for your stay at one of the local inns today,” I said rising to my feet. “And let us get off the roof, too. The dark has all but stayed, and I don’t want to be discovered like this.” The four us easily hopped off of the building, but it seemed as though I didn’t need to brace myself as hard as I did. My landing was surprisingly -- light. As we got back to the square Anahya took the ice off my hands and bended the water back into her concealed source. She brushed her light brown hair our of her face, and grabbed the childs hand. We walked side by side, while “Kaedo”, trailed off behind.

“He is my bodyguard. He usually trails behind to keep people like you from interfering with our journey.” Anahya said as we walked into a tea shop that had just opened its doors. I rustled through my pack, and paid for three cups of tea then sat down at a table in the corner of the small shanty shop.

“I am good at detecting lies, and I know you were lying, Mr. Jing.” Evidently not, I thought to myself as I sipped my sand pear tea. “I’m afraid you won’t be leaving this tea shop conscious unless you tell me everything.”

I thought about how I could weave my story into half truths, and strong lies. After a while more of apologizing to butter her up, I told her everything.

 

 

 

 


End file.
